Somewhere on the shelves of the Wembley library, slipped between the World Cup 2018 bid book and the Beginner’s Guide to Crisis Management, there doubtless sits a list of the rules for England’s World Cup campaigns since 1966.

Alongside penalty heartaches and last-ditch injury scares, it must state that one previously underrated or unheralded player must emerge from the pack on the world stage and elevate their star to a higher plane.

The central canon of received wisdom about England at major tournaments demands it, the media and fans crave it and managers spend much of their tournament preparations shuffling their pack in the hope of ascertaining who it might be.

It is the point at which a fringe player becomes one of the first names on the team sheet, or a young talent confirms they possess more than potential.

Consider Gary Lineker’s conversion from wannabe to world-class finisher in winning the golden boot in Mexico 86. Or the effervescent Paul Gascoigne seizing his Italia 90 opportunity by the scruff of the neck and helping to irrevocably change English football in the process.

Or an 18-year-old Michael Owen tearing through the Argentina defence in St-Etienne in 1998 to slot the ball past Carlos Roa for a goal that still delivers a surge of adrenaline no matter how often it is viewed.

Others are less obvious. Owen Hargreaves, then a regular Champions League midfielder but still an unknown quality to many in our Premier League obsessed climate, emerged during the Germany World Cup in 2006 as England’s best player.

Ashley Cole quietly staked his claim as perhaps the world’s best left-back during the 2002 World Cup in Japan and South Korea, a mantle he then held for more than a decade.

In at least three of those cases, those players were by no means certain starters when the plane left for the World Cup. Gascoigne travelled to Sardinia with just 11 caps to his name (David Platt had five), Lineker had 13 when he headed for the heat of Mexico and Hargreaves was booed by sections of the crowd when he first appeared in Germany.

Either through circumstance or desperation they found themselves thrust to the fore and seized the chance accordingly. Lineker, in particular, has persuasively described the peculiar alchemy – a tactical tweak here, an injury there – that can shift the course of a campaign.

Sifting through Roy Hodgson’s 23, the likely candidates to emerge from the pack broadly fall into two categories: the youthful contenders hoping to “do a Gazza” and the quietly unsung heroes who might emerge as central actors in England’s soap opera.

The former cohort – Ross Barkley, Raheem Sterling, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain et al – have been much discussed as part of the wider debate about whether Hodgson, having picked a squad with its fair share of callow vitality, will now go the whole hog and give youth its head.

A good case can also be made for Daniel Sturridge, bubbling with confidence following a season that has seen him move from bit-part player to first-choice England striker, to seize the day.

But it his Liverpool team-mate Sterling – leaving aside the folly of his rash sending off in Miami – who could emerge from the pack. The teenager ended the season in confident, defence-baiting form. He has the confidence, allied with the footballing intelligence, to seize his chance if it comes.

The second camp – the late developing linchpin – is perhaps harder to call. But both Gary Cahill and Leighton Baines are well placed to use the tournament in Brazil as a launchpad into the consciousness of the international football fan. Cahill has gone from being far from first choice for Chelsea to a mainstay of their defence and one of the first names on Hodgson’s team sheet in an age of comparative paucity of options in relation to the riches of previous generations.

He will be expected to imbue solidity and confidence in a back four that has a somewhat jerry built air about it. The good news is that his calm authority for club and country this season suggests he is up to the task.

Baines, too, has gone from fringe squad player to first choice left-back in the past two years. At 29, he can hardly be called a coming man but making the most of what may be his only chance to play at a World Cup finals is likely to bring out the best in the guitar toting Everton full-back.

But my pick for the player most liable to spring, fully formed on to the world stage does not quite fit into either of those categories. Another player who was developed at Southampton and a comparatively late developer, Adam Lallana has served sufficient notice of his talent not to be a completely unknown quality.

Yet his performances in an England shirt to date, his possessed self-confidence in his own ability and the stamina to keep going in testing conditions when others may be wilting around him give the 26-year-old as much of a chance as anyone of hitting the heights.

Over the next three matches, as Hodgson’s squad crisscross Brazil, we will find out.